An archaeomalacological synthesis of people-mollusc engagement across the Coral Sea Cultural Interaction Sphere, Southwestern Pacific Ocean

The Coral Sea Cultural Interaction Sphere is a framework that has been used to investigate the deep time connections and patterns of inter-regional exchange between northeastern mainland Australia, the Torres Strait, and southern mainland Papua New Guinea and associated offshore islands to its southeast. This social and cultural exchange is visible archaeologically through the maritime networks that facilitated the flow of peoples, objects, technologies, and ideas across the Coral Sea region over at least the past 3,000 years. Although research has primarily focused on pottery and other material cultural classes, molluscs also played an equally significant role, both in subsistence and as raw material to create shell artefacts. To investigate the ways in which these people-mollusc engagements manifested across the Coral Sea Cultural Interaction Sphere, a systematic meta-analysis was undertaken on relevant archaeological and archaeomalacological literature on sites connected through these networks. Results of the study of molluscan assemblages from 96 sites reflect foraging strategies targeting local habitats. Artefactual shell present in these assemblages demonstrates selective uptake of objects across the Coral Sea region without evidence for shared uptake of artefact types throughout the entire study area, highlighting the complex and dynamic nature of the Coral Sea exchange networks and the role of decision-making by local communities in the spread of objects and technologies across vast distances. This study sets the stage for future research to address key gaps in the archaeological knowledge of people-mollusc engagement across the Coral Sea Cultural Interaction Sphere.